Republicans swept to control of Congress early Wednesday, taking the Senate from the Democrats and solidifying their grip on the House in historic gains midway through President Bush (news - web sites)'s term.

In a marquee governor's race, the president's brother, Jeb, won four more years in Florida.

"Wow, what a night," exulted Elizabeth Dole (news - web sites) of North Carolina, one of a half-dozen newly elected Republican senators.

With three Senate races yet to be settled, Republicans had 50 seats, enough to guarantee control on the basis of Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites)'s tie-breaking vote.

And the Republicans successfully defended open seats in New Hampshire, where Rep. John Sununu (news, bio, voting record) triumphed, and in a string of Southern states, the president's home state of Texas among them.

Republicans easily turned back a Democratic challenge in the House, fashioning a majority for a fifth straight election. The trend pointed toward single-digit GOP gains â€” and a possible turnover in Democratic leadership.

Democratic officials said Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri would decide within a day or two whether to seek a new term as leader.

Democrats won governorships in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin, a string of Midwestern states long in GOP hands. But Rep. Robert Ehrlich (news, bio, voting record) became the first Republican elected governor of Maryland in more than three decades, and Democratic incumbents fell in Georgia and South Carolina.

Democratic chairman Terry McAuliffe, no fan of the president, said the Republican success was due in large measure to Bush's standing. "I think I pin a lot of it on that this is a president who has had very high approval ratings. He's had the longest sustained approval ratings of any president in modern history," McAuliffe said.

Republicans swept to control of Congress early Wednesday, taking the Senate from the Democrats and solidifying their grip on the House in historic gains midway through President Bush (news - web sites)'s term.

In a marquee governor's race, the president's brother, Jeb, won four more years in Florida.

"Wow, what a night," exulted Elizabeth Dole (news - web sites) of North Carolina, one of a half-dozen newly elected Republican

ators.

With three Senate races yet to be settled, Republicans had 50 seats, enough to guarantee control on the basis of Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites)'s tie-breaking vote.

And the Republicans successfully defended open seats in New Hampshire, where Rep. John Sununu (news, bio, voting record) triumphed, and in a string of Southern states, the president's home state of Texas among them.

Republicans easily turned back a Democratic challenge in the House, fashioning a majority for a fifth straight election. The trend pointed toward single-digit GOP gains — and a possible turnover in Democratic leadership.

Democratic officials said Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri would decide within a day or two whether to seek a new term as leader.

Democrats won governorships in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin, a string of Midwestern states long in GOP hands. But Rep. Robert Ehrlich (news, bio, voting record) became the first Republican elected governor of Maryland in more than three decades, and Democratic incumbents fell in Georgia and South Carolina.

Democratic chairman Terry McAuliffe, no fan of the president, said the Republican success was due in large measure to Bush's standing. "I think I pin a lot of it on that this is a president who has had very high approval ratings. He's had the longest sustained approval ratings of any president in modern history," McAuliffe said.

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WASHINGTON, Nov. 6 — Republicans on Wednesday were savoring their history-making retaking of the Senate, a sweeping victory that could help President Bush’s plans for tax cuts and homeland security and spur quicker action on judicial vacancies. The last Democrat to fall to the GOP’s unexpectedly strong showing was former Vice President Walter Mondale, who conceded that his last-minute bid to succeed the late Sen. Paul Wellstone in Minnesota came up short.

MONDALE’S CONCESSION that Republican Norm Coleman was the winner of the race gave the GOP control of at least 51 seats, ending Democratic dominance of the upper house of Congress and giving the Republicans control of the executive and legislative branches of the federal government.

And the outcome of an expected recount in South Dakota — where Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson beat Republican Rep. John Thune by only 527 votes out of 334,435 cast — and a Dec. 7 runoff in Louisiana could further tip the balance toward the GOP.

Republicans also control the White House and easily retained their House majority in Tuesday’s elections, giving Bush a strong hand to pursue his agenda in the second half of his first term.

Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., who will soon retake his former position as Senate majority leader, said on CBS’ “The Early Show” that the results “did exceed our hopes and expectations to a degree, just because it did become so widespread, not only keeping the House but taking back the Senate by at least a couple of seats.”

Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota, who will step down from the leadership position when Lott ascends, acknowledged that the election results represented a statement on Bush’s leadership.

DASCHLE: A REFERENDUM OF CONCERN

“It was also a referendum of the American people’s concern for the war on terror, what is happening in Iraq, our foreign policy, the concern they have for national security. The president made that his drumbeat,” Daschle said on NBC.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who led her party’s Senate election drive, said Democrats failed to hone a sharp message on issues like education and jobs.

“The country is still divided, but there were a lot of people on the left who didn’t hear what they needed to hear in this election and might have stayed home,” she said in an interview.

After losing the one-seat majority they have held since Vermont Sen. James Jeffords abandoned the GOP in June 2001, Democrats will be forced to rely on filibusters — procedural delays — to thwart Republican initiatives. Such roadblocks require only 41 votes and the Democrats will have at least 47 senators in their camp.

The GOP takeover was remarkable because the president’s party was defending 20 of the 34 Senate seats in play. In addition, Republicans defied the historical trend in which the party holding the White House usually loses seats in midterm elections. The last midterm contest in which the president’s party gained Senate seats compared to the previous Election Day was in 1982, when President Reagan’s GOP picked up one seat.

REPUBLICAN VICTORIES

Mondale’s concession in the Minnesota race for the Senate, sending Republican Norm Coleman to Congress, put the finishing touches on the Republican’s triumphant Election Day. With 95 percent of precincts reporting, Coleman had 50 percent of the vote to 48 percent for Mondale.

Mondale, who served as vice president under Jimmy Carter, was considered a strong contender after he was chosen by Democrats to replace Wellstone who died just 11 days before the election, but he failed to galvanize support in an eleventh-hour debate with Coleman. Some observers said Mondale also was hurt by Wellstone’s memorial service, which took on the tone of a Democratic political rally. (More on this race).

In Missouri, former Rep. Jim Talent defeated Democratic Sen. Jean Carnahan. Talent, 46, was picked by Bush to run against Carnahan and the president visited Missouri repeatedly to campaign for him. Carnahan had been appointed to replace her husband, Mel, who was elected in 2000 three weeks after he was killed in a plane crash.

In Georgia, Republican Rep. Saxby Chambliss denied incumbent Max Cleland a second term in the Senate, winning the seat Tuesday with a campaign in which he painted the triple amputee Vietnam veteran as too soft on homeland security.

Cleland, who watched a large pre-election day lead evaporate, also was derided by Chambliss as too liberal for Georgia voters.

Three other closely watched races also went to the Republicans:

North Carolina: Elizabeth Dole easily vanquished Erskine Bowles, White House chief of staff for President Clinton, to fill the retiring GOP Sen. Jesse Helms’ seat. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Dole had 54 percent of the votes to Bowles’ 45 percent.

The race was created by Helms’ announcement that he would not seek re-election after 30 years in the Senate. It became the most expensive Senate contest in the country, with the two candidates spending more than $20 million.

New Hampshire: Democratic Gov. Jean Shaheen conceded to Rep. John Sununu in the race for a seat formerly held conservative Sen. Bob Smith, who was defeated by by Sununu in a bitterly contested primary election.

Colorado: Republican Sen. Wayne Allard, who had been considered one of the most vulnerable GOP incumbents, defeated Democratic lawyer Tom Strickland in Colorado, with 51 percent of the vote to Strickland’s 45 percent.

Democrats, meanwhile, retained the New Jersey seat with a victory by Frank Lautenberg, the party’s last-minute replacement for Sen. Robert Torricelli after he abandoned his re-election bid amid an ethics scandal. Lautenberg retired from the Senate in 2000 but was called back into politics as allegations over Torricelli’s acceptance of expensive gifts appeared to doom his campaign and imperil Democrats’ hopes of keeping control of the Senate.

And in Arkansas, Democratic challenger Mark Pryor took the seat from Sen. Tim Hutchinson, who had disappointed Bible Belt conservatives who backed his family values campaign in 1996, only to watch him divorce his wife and marry a former staffer. Hutchinson was defeated by the son of the senator he replaced.

The Democrats also, for the moment at least, retained the seat in South Dakota. In a race that many analysts saw as a proxy fight between the president and Daschle, Johnson defeated Thune by the slimmest of margins.

But because the margin was within a quarter of one percent, or about 800 votes, the loser is automatically entitled to a recount if one is requested. Thune campaign officials said Wednesday they were discussing their next move.

Texas: With 87 percent of precincts reporting, GOP state Attorney General John Cornyn was well ahead of Democrat Ron Kirk, the former Dallas mayor, and was the projected victor.

Louisiana: Democratic incumbent Mary Landrieu was forced into a Dec. 7 runoff after she failed to get 50 percent of the vote in her race against eight opponents. Her opponent will be Republican State Elections Commissioner Suzanne Terrell, who finished a distant second behind Landrieu, daughter of former New Orleans Mayor Moon Landrieu, who captured 46 percent of the vote.

Tennessee: Former U.S. Education Secretary and one-time Tennessee Lamar Alexander was elected to the Senate from his state, replacing GOP Sen. Fred Thompson, who retired. Alexander received 54 percent of the vote, compared to 44 percent for Democrat Bob Clement.

INCUMBENTS WIN

While Republicans were registering gains in key battlegrounds, most incumbents cruised to victory.

As Election Day’s first conclusive returns came in, Virginia’s John Warner, a power on the Senate Armed Services Committee, won his fifth six-year term in a race in which his popularity was underlined by the failure of Democrats to even field a candidate. Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell, expected to be the No. 2 Senate GOP leader, won his fourth term.

Other victorious Republicans included Larry Craig of Idaho, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Pat Roberts of Kansas, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Jeff Sessions of Alabama, James Inhofe of Oklahoma, Susan Collins of Maine, Pete Domenici of New Mexico, Gordon Smith of Oregon and Michael Enzi of Wyoming.

Also re-elected were Democratic Sens. Max Baucus of Montana, Joseph Biden of Delaware, Richard Durbin of Illinois, Tom Harkin of Iowa, John Kerry of Massachusetts, a potential 2004 presidential contender, Carl Levin of Michigan, Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia.

With their slender margin of control, Senate Republicans will command committees and decide which bills the chamber will debate. Bush’s proposals for tax cuts, economic stimulus, defense and domestic spending, national security and judicial nominations would dominate the chamber’s agenda — and put Democrats in a defensive role.

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yeah. there was only a 30% voter turnout. It shows the lack of confidence voters have since the 2000 elections because of what happened in Floriduh. Our votes don't count anymore. We need to make revolution and overthrow this fascist regime.

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yeah. there was only a 30% voter turnout. It shows the lack of confidence voters have since the 2000 elections because of what happened in Floriduh. Our votes don't count anymore. We need to make revolution and overthrow this fascist regime.

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yeah. there was only a 30% voter turnout. It shows the lack of confidence voters have since the 2000 elections because of what happened in Floriduh. Our votes don't count anymore. We need to make revolution and overthrow this fascist regime.

I seriously doubt that the 2000 elections had anything to do with the low voter turnout.....Alot of Amercians stopped giving a shit about politics along time ago and thus they dont even bother anymore.....And stop with this revolution and facism garbage....If that was true then the FBI would be knocking on your door and throwing you in prison for all the stuff you post on the board.....

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I seriously doubt that the 2000 elections had anything to do with the low voter turnout.....Alot of Amercians stopped giving a shit about politics along time ago and thus they dont even bother anymore.....And stop with this revolution and facism garbage....If that was true then the FBI would be knocking on your door and throwing you in prison for all the stuff you post on the board.....

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Actually dudeeee, I have no problem with the first amendment.....What I have a problem with is your lame ass attempts to sound like some kind of a revolutionary.....Here's some advice....Look up the definition of facism....We're not even close to living in that type of political system...

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"normal" noises, can i ask you something. how old are you? from that guitar picture, it seems to me that you are at least in your 20s. by that deduction, i would assume that you are old enough to realise that not eveyrthing is purely good and bad. i think in your mind, you view anyone republican or 'conservative' as evil, or bad in some way. thats a very immature, unjust and childish way of viewing political spectrums. ive met people like you, big eyed, bright future revolutionaries, and people like you are irritating to me. you yell for some revolution, despise everything to the right of 180 degrees, and your arguments bare no weight, logically or systematically. recently i had a conversation with a guy who works for the LaRouche campaign, on campus, LaRouche is an ultra left candidate running for Senate..for about 10 years already. he never won more than 2% of the vote.

so the LaRouche supporter tries to convince me of how the police do nothing but protect the rich, how capitalism is evil, how the rich assrape the poor, yada yada yada, the same commie drivel i heard in my politburo classes back in the good ol USSR, a nation which had your kind of revolution, and whose citizens are now poor, hungry and wartorn. read some books, listen to people's views, even if they are more to the right of you, it doesnt make them evil. grow the fuck up.

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"normal" noises, can i ask you something. how old are you? from that guitar picture, it seems to me that you are at least in your 20s. by that deduction, i would assume that you are old enough to realise that not eveyrthing is purely good and bad. i think in your mind, you view anyone republican or 'conservative' as evil, or bad in some way. thats a very immature, unjust and childish way of viewing political spectrums. ive met people like you, big eyed, bright future revolutionaries, and people like you are irritating to me. you yell for some revolution, despise everything to the right of 180 degrees, and your arguments bare no weight, logically or systematically. recently i had a conversation with a guy who works for the LaRouche campaign, on campus, LaRouche is an ultra left candidate running for Senate..for about 10 years already. he never won more than 2% of the vote.

so the LaRouche supporter tries to convince me of how the police do nothing but protect the rich, how capitalism is evil, how the rich assrape the poor, yada yada yada, the same commie drivel i heard in my politburo classes back in the good ol USSR, a nation which had your kind of revolution, and whose citizens are now poor, hungry and wartorn. read some books, listen to people's views, even if they are more to the right of you, it doesnt make them evil. grow the fuck up.